"Every note is my own responsibility"

Herr Faust was a thirty-one-year-old secondary school language teacher, he loved music and he wanted to give sound to his enthusiasm. He had long played with the idea of learning to play the violin. It was not an artistic ambition but driven by the desire for a deeper knowledge of music. One Wednesday morning, father and daughter, hand in hand, were wandering towards the house of the violin teacher. Although little Isabelle wanted to play the piano, there was no piano teacher in the neighbourhood. Anyway, it was exciting to practise with Daddy. As to how far her daddy got with the instrument, no one knows. But his daughter now rules supreme, a goddess in the pantheon of violin virtuosi.

Photo: Felix Broede

The pressure to conform was not the driving force behind Isabelle realising her potential. Her parents had no ambitions to carve a world star out of her. She did not exhaust herself with practice: she was a true child. Neither did they allow her to fritter away her talent. At the age of eleven, when her younger brother was also showing promise on the violin, her parents persuaded them both to team up with two other young local talents to form a string quartet. Her brother changed to the viola (he is now the solo violist of the Bremen Philharmonic), while sister played the second violin for five whole years. She benefited enormously from the communal music making and acquired a lifelong love for chamber music.

It was then that she began visiting the master classes of Dénes Zsigmondy, from whom she methodically learned the entire Bartók repertoire. She practised a great deal and was pampered as the youngest and most talented Zsigmondy student. Zsigmondy knew Bartók personally and had many anecdotes about him, which made it easier for the young girl to attain a closer and more emotional understanding of these hard-to-interpret works. Little surprise, then, that her first recording made in 1997 comprised Bartók pieces. She continued her studies with Christoph Poppen, saying "under him, I became a musical adult." After his first hearing of Isabelle performing a Mozart concerto, the teacher gave her the following instruction: "Now play it without vibrato." That deeply shocked Isabelle. Later she came to understand that vibrato is jewel which cannot be applied indiscriminately.

To this day Isabelle is happy that her teachers were two such diametrically opposed personalities as Christoph Poppen and Dénes Zsigmondy. "Although they both had the same goals, their concept of music was totally different." This disparity did not confuse the young violinist at all. Nor did it prompt her to plump for one approach over the other. She understood that everyone has to travel their own path. "I realised that I have to make decisions, I have to think about pieces. I have to know a piece of music thoroughly, rather than just follow traditions. I have to take each step consciously while taking my suitcase to the fair. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from my teachers is that every note I play is my own responsibility" she said in an interview.

In 1987, at the age of fifteen she won the Leopold Mozart solo violin competition in Augsburg. From then on, chamber music was placed on the back burner and she performed the entire solo violin repertoire with major orchestras, from Mozart to Mendelssohn and Dvořák. Later she worked with Giovanni Antonini and Frans Brüggen, and the historic performance movement made a deep impression on her. "If you play just once on a true Baroque violin, with gut strings and an old bow, you immediately hear the difference. But if you set off down this path, there is virtually no way back", she said.

Photo: Detlev Schneider

Since 1996 Isabelle Faust has not been playing on just any instrument. Through the sponsorship of a German bank, she acquired the "Snow White" Stradivarius. This instrument was made in 1704, and obtained its nickname because for many years, it was believed to have been lost. After one hundred and fifty years of silence, Isabelle brought it back to life, and has been playing it since 1996. Hungarian audiences had the privilege of hearing in when she performed the Beethoven concerto at the Liszt Academy with András Keller and the Concerto Budapest. It was breathtaking. For Isabelle Faust, most important is music and the discovery of all kinds of music. Every composer has his own language and the performing artist must acquire these languages. They must research the characteristics of different composers, the stylistic hallmarks that belong to them alone – this work is a great joy for her because she is a highly curious person. She approaches contemporary music in the same spirit. "It is a fact that these days a musician cannot just perform museum pieces exclusively. They must make a stand for contemporary music. But concert organisers have their own responsibilities: they must give the audience the chance to encounter contemporary music because this way they become more receptive to new impressions". This has now become her guiding creed. It is probably not easy to agree a time with Isabelle Faust. In the spring season alone she gave forty concerts across Europe. So if she is not on the stage of some distinguished musical institution, she is probably en route between Vienna, London, Barcelona or who knows how many other places. She practises in hotel rooms and regards herself fortunate that after many years there have only been two or three complaints from guests next door. Every so often, she drops into Berlin where she lives with her family. When she is asked if she is a workaholic, she laughs. "Of course not!" If need be, she can manage a whole day without playing the violin. But for her music-making is not work but pleasure.

 "I am in the fortunate positions that my work brings me ever more joy from day to day. This is largely due to my fellow musicians, because I think making music together is a fantastically inspiring thing. Being a musician is an unbelievably beautiful profession since you are always receiving new impressions."